A little over a decade ago, Las Vegas was little more than a supporting player on the national and international sports scene. Aside from the occasional world championship bout or mixed martial arts event, the city was something of a reserve player in the sports world.
What about now? Las Vegas has firmly established itself as a bona fide superstar in the world of great sports, and Jay Vickers, chief operating officer of the UNLV Sports Innovation Institute, has had a front-row seat to this recent, rapid transformation.
But from there, Vickers began to realize that despite the sports boom, Las Vegas was missing an opportunity to capitalize on it in a different, but equally important, and distinctly Vegas, way. The idea: bring together prominent leaders and educators from the sports and entertainment industry in a convention-like atmosphere for three days of education, collaboration and networking. And what if some deals got done, too? Well, that often happens when industry leaders get together.
Thus sprouted the seeds for SEIcon, the sports, entertainment and innovation conference taking place this week in the shadows of the UNLV campus at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas.
The inaugural event, which began Monday and will conclude Wednesday, is a collaborative partnership between the UNLV Institute for Sports Innovation, Syracuse University’s Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and Las Vegas-based guest experience company Circle.
“Part of our vision is to be the hub for all things sports-related research, innovation and entertainment,” Vickers said of UNLV’s Institute for Sports Innovation, which he has served as a leader since launching as an initiative in 2018. “And to do that, it’s not just about what we do in the city, but also about influencing others to want to work with us.”
SEIcon was conceived during a meeting with Lawrence Epstein, executive vice president and COO of the Las Vegas-based UFC in late spring 2021. Vickers approached Epstein about UFC hosting the institute’s sports research summit. Epstein quickly agreed, but over the course of the conversation suggested Vickers consider hosting a different type of conference: one that would take a broader, omnichannel approach rather than a panel discussion on a single topic.
Vickers says he took the suggestion as an order and spent the next three years building relationships with the Folk Sports School at Syracuse University and Circle (Circle CEO Sean Garrity is a Syracuse alumnus.) From there, the team secured USA Today Sports as a sponsor and went on to secure sponsorship deals with everyone from the Las Vegas Raiders and UFC to the city of Las Vegas and Caesars Entertainment.
More than three years of planning culminated this week with the inaugural SEIcon, an event featuring nearly 200 guest speakers and 44 panel discussions and keynote addresses.
Panelists included several UNLV faculty members, executives from the UNLV International Gaming Institute, the UNLV International Gaming Regulatory Center and the UNLV Department of Economic Development, as well as alumni from across the university and the William S. Boyd School of Law.
“At SEIcon, we created a platform for like-minded people across the sports, entertainment and innovation ecosystem,” Vickers said. “We gave them the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with global thought leaders in our industry. [eventually] That’s like a done deal.”
Another unique aspect of SEIcon was that dozens of students from UNLV and Syracuse were among the more than 700 attendees, and interns from both schools gained hands-on experience helping produce the conference.
“Students who attend SEIcon get to see what the sports and entertainment ecosystem is like as they begin to think about their career choices,” Vickers said, “and at the same time, our interns are learning what it takes to put together a large-scale event.”
Because SEIcon was founded as an annual event, a similar opportunity awaits students next summer, with smaller, more focused conferences planned for October in New York, spring 2025 in Washington DC and London, and 2026 in the Middle East.
The major event, Vickers says, is all about showcasing the new reality that the entertainment capital of the world is now also a sports mecca — and putting UNLV at the forefront of it, aligning its education and research programs with the city’s economic drivers and emerging markets.
“What we’re doing is planting a flag here in Las Vegas and saying, ‘We have so much more to offer.’ [to offer] “Las Vegas has a lot more to offer than you think,” Vickers says. “So don’t just come to Las Vegas to gamble or do hospitality, come to Las Vegas to learn all about sports and entertainment. And guess what? Las Vegas is not only the sports and entertainment capital of the world, it’s the intellectual sports and entertainment capital of the world.”
About the UNLV Institute for Sports Innovation
The UNLV Sports Innovation Institute is focused on years of academic research, product testing and development, and collaboration between faculty, industry executives, organizations and entrepreneurs. The institute is dedicated to researching sports technology, the evolution and future of business in sports, and maximizing performance and outcomes.
